Water supplies on wheatbelt farms : a general picture

In good rainfall years, farm dams provide water fo more than 50 per cent of the total stock in the wheatbelt. Other sources include ground water supplies and the piped Comprehensive Water Scheme. The March 1970 census included questions on farm water supplies including how farmers coped in the 1969-70 drought

Farm dams in the wheatbelt

Of the estimated 76 000 farm dams in the wheatbelt, about 8 per cent either leak or are salt affected. The remaining 70 000 dams are capable of holding water for livestock use and can be regarded as sercicable dams. A great many of the serviceable dams are unreliable water supplies due to the combined effects of lack of runoff from catchments, shallow depth of storage and small size of storage in relation to expected demand from livestock and evaporation loss

Cost of farm water supplies : conclusions from surveys

The Department of Agriculture, in conjunction with the Farm Water Supply Advisory Committee, has conducted farm wster supply surveys in many districts in the wheatbelt. The aim of the surveys was to collect data to assess the existing water supplies, the potential for further water supply developments and to compare the relative difficulty of water supply development in different localities

Improved catchments for farm dams

The amounts and frequency of runoff from unimproved farmland catchments in Western Australia\u27s cereal and sheep districts are notoriously variable and unreliable. As a result many farmers have constructed improved catchments to ensure better reliability of farm dams for livestock and homestead water supplies. Improved catchments which are used extensively on these farms are all of the compacted or bare-earth type. These include roaded catchments, flat batter dams and, to a lesser extent, scraped catchments. This article mainly discusses roaded catchments, the most common of the improved catchment types on farms

West Midlands development : water supplies in the West Midlands

IF it is practical and economic to develop both surface and underground supplies, the aim on each farm should be to provide half the farm water requirement from dams, and the other half from bores

Reducing evaporation from farm dams : a progress report December 1969

IN most seasons in the Western Australian Wheatbelt evaporation reduction techniques rate a low priority due to either the expense or the relative inefficiency of the techniques. It is generally agreed that a similar investment in deepening or enlarging existing dams, or making new dams larger from the outset, is likely to be more profitable

Northern wheatbelt water supply study

Department of Agriculture surveys have shown that many farms in Western australia\u27s northern wheatbelt have inadequate water supplies. More than 80 per cent of all farms in that area depend soley on groundwater for watering livestock, a much higher percentage than for most other farming areas. Because groundwater salinities have increased in recent years, concern is held for the long-term future of this recource. In contrast to more southern agricultural areas, farm dams in the northern wheatbelt are relatively uncommon. Only 30 per cent of the existing dams in the northern wheatbelt constitute effective water supplies. More than half of the ineffective dams regularly go dry, caused by those dams being too small and too shallow, or by an inadequate catchment, or both

Sealing farm dams

Research over the past 10 years has shown that it is technically possible to seal many leaking farm dams. In some situations a cheap chemical treatment is effective but in most cases it is cheaper to construct a replacement dam. This article reviews the situation in western Australia and outlines some of the methods used for sealing dams